Justin Kasemodel, a doctoral student in the Ohio State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a graduate research assistant at the ElectroScience Laboratory, was selected to receive an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Doctoral Research Award and won the Antenna Application Symposium’s student paper contest. Kasemodel earned both honors for his research, which aims to create a new, smaller antenna array design paradigm that will enable the creation of smaller, cheaper and more powerful devices capable of communicating with multiple satellites over greater distances.

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Doctoral Research Award is given annually to a few students worldwide and is based on their potential to become future leaders of the community. The award of $2,500 will be used to support Kasemodel's research project, Realization of a Metamaterial Inspired Low-Profile Ultra Wideband Phased Array Aperture. With space at a premium, there is strong interest to develop a single wideband phased array aperture capable of supporting multiple communication and radar functions simultaneously. Kasemodel's research will demonstrate a new antenna array design paradigm for the smaller unmanned aerial vehicles and ground platforms. His approach aims to create designs that are lighter and thinner than current versions, and are also integrated into the vehicle structure. This new design will enable the replacement of many of the current protruding structures, resulting in smaller, cheaper and more agile unmanned aerial vehicles.

Kasemodel also won the Antenna Application Symposium’s 2009 student paper contest for his paper, A Novel Non-Symmetric Tightly Coupled Element for Wideband Phased Array Apertures, and oral presentation about his research. The award is given for the best student paper and presentation about new or innovative work on antenna design, fabrication, testing, analysis or related topics.

"Justin is very deserving of these awards. In addition to being a top student at Ohio State, he has the ability to see the big picture quickly and solve complex problems with ease and elegance." Kasemodel's advisor, Professor John Volakis, said, "I am certain that he will make lasting contributions to the electromagnetics community."

Kasemodel's research interests include wideband antenna design and measurement techniques, reduced size continuous coverage adaptive GPS arrays, wearable antennas, and the design, fabrication and measurement of planar ultra wideband low-profile phased array apertures capable of wide-angle scanning. He is an Air Force Research Lab Fellow and co-advised by Dr. Chi-Chih Chen and Professor John Volakis.

Kasemodel, a native of Gillette, Wyoming, received his BSEE from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) in 2006. During that time, Kasemodel was a NASA Space Grant Fellow and won 2nd place in the IEEE Region 5 student paper competition for his paper, A Direct Write Antenna for Wearable Applications. (9/09)